The present invention relates to a device for collecting, transmitting, storing and/or using solar energy and particularly to a device for transmitting collected solar radiation which has been concentrated and collimated.
Many solar energy collection devices are known. Most of these, especially the commercial ones, collect solar energy by absorption of the same by a circulating liquid system, e.g., water or water/antifreeze. The thus-heated fluid is, e.g., used to heat a household water supply. Such systems require extensive plumbing which, especially in retrofitting applications, is inconvenient and expensive.
In contrast to such familiar systems wherein a fluid is taken to the solar radiation, e.g., outside a house and the captured heat circulated into the house, there have also been suggested systems wherein the solar radiation per se is directed inside a structure to an existing energy using device. Such systems comprise three elements, a solar collector, a transmitting component and a utilization device. Such systems and components are disclosed, e.g., in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,511,559, 4,139,286, 3,955,554, 4,018,212, 4,068,474, 3,070,643, 507,999, 3,297,958, 3,217,702, 3,713,727, 3,379,394, 3,391,688, 3,780,722, 4,026,267, 4,078,547, 247,229 and 668,404. However, such systems have not achieved practical significance. One reason for this is the prior art failure to realize the criticality of transmission and other losses along the optical path followed by the collected solar radiation. For example, on page 6 of U.S. Pat. No. 247,229, low collimation, many reflections and high dispersion of the transmitted radiation is preferred. Similar disclosures are also made in U.S. Pat. No. 668,404 (column 1, lines 29-37) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,547 (column 2, lines 31-39).